Results for "Donna Khalife"

Donna Khalife

Donna Khalifé is a singer, double bass player, composer, arranger born in Lebanon.

She starts her first piano lessons at an early age. In 2003, she moves to Paris to continue her music studies: piano, orchestration, harmony … Her conducting classes and her jazz and improvisation classes contribute a lot in shaping her musical sensibilities. Through the years, she improves her singing, composing, arranging and improvisation, as well as her piano and double bass playing.

Her eclecticism leads her to take part in different projects, in Lebanon and abroad both as leader and side woman as she multiplies also her collaborations with other art forms like theatre, dance, cinema.

Home

By Khachatur Savzyan

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2025
Track listing: Home; Saffara; Petit accent; Awakening; Current situation; Chacals; The day after; This is what happened; Process; Then why do we persist (to G.M.); Marcus Aurelius; Wholeness.

Hayeli: Mirrors Unto The Improvising Soul

by Ian Patterson
June 5, 2025

Two double basses is an uncommon lineup, particularly when it comes to improvised music. But Lebanese double bassist Donna Khalifé and Armenian double bassist Khachatur Savzyan are well attuned to one another. Partners in life, their creative philosophy is reflected in each other's approach to improvisation. Not for nothing is their project entitled Hayeli, which means ...

Hayeli: Home

by Ian Patterson
June 4, 2025

Hayeli is the moniker of Lebanese double bassist Donna Khalifé and Armenian double bassist Khachatur Savzyan, partners in life as in music. Khalifé is held in high esteem as one of the most progressive voices on Beirut's jazz and improvised music scene--a reputation her highly original self-produced albums Heavy Dance (2017) and Hope is the Thing ...

A Brief Guide To Lebanese Jazz

by Ian Patterson
October 22, 2024

Lebanon is known for many things--its lush valleys, a fertile coastal plain and a 170 km-long mountain range carpeted with cedar, oak and pine. Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre, Byblos and Baalbek--its cities' names resonate with history's vibrations. These are cities that have borne more history than most. It is a country renowned for its ...

Bassisterhood - Part 2

by Ludovico Granvassu
December 8, 2020

We continue our exploration of bands and projects lead by female bass players which have become exponentially more prominent in the past two decades. Here is the fascinating music by musicians that debunk commonly held stereotypes related to the physicality of music, and develop a personal way to synthesize their countless sources of inspiration.

Donna Khalife: Hope is the Thing with Feathers

by Ian Patterson
January 14, 2020

Two-and-a-half years after her powerful debut, Heavy Dance (Self- Produced, 2017), Lebanese double bassist and singer Donna Khalifé returns with another sparkling statement. It is not an especially long time between releases, but there are significant differences between the two recordings. Heavy Dance, with guitar and saxophone to the fore, was a frequently stormy affair of ...

Donna Khalifé: On The Silent Wings Of Hope

by Ian Patterson
January 9, 2020

Ask any jazz musician in Beirut who stands out on the scene, who is doing something adventurous, something different, and the first name that comes to everyone's lips is Donna Khalifé. Classically trained in Beirut and Paris, double bassist/singer Khalifé turned her back on that world to dedicate herself completely to jazz and improvisation. ...

Donna Khalifé: Hope is the Thing with Feathers

by Hrayr Attarian
January 6, 2020

Lebanese vocalist and bassist Donna Khalifé is a consummate jazz artist. In addition to mastering singing in all its aspects, including scatting, she is a distinctive composer and an accomplished instrumentalist. On her second release Hope Is the Thing with Feathers she leads her quintet on intriguing interpretations of standards and her own originals.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

By Donna Khalife

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2019
Track listing: My Favorite Things; Vocalism; Koutalon Kharsa'; Hope Is the Thing with Feathers; Uti Var Hage (feat. Vindla String Quartet); Romane; Ta'iran; Sultan; Uti Var Hage.